Criminal Justice at UMFK: True Crime Books

Randy Steven Kraft
"Here is the true, shocking story of Randy Draft: why he killed, who he killed, and why it may have taken as many as 67 gruesome mutilation murders until he was finally stopped."

John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy was a Suburban Chicago business man who killed 33 young boys. The book explores his childhood, his daily life and, of course, the murders themselves.

Subject Jack the Ripper Murders, London, England, 1888

Rex Allen Krebs
"Details the capture and sentencing of serial rapist Rex Allan Krebs, who, after being released from prison, kidnapped, raped, tortured, and brutally murdered two college students in San Luis Obispo, California."

"Even as a child in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, Herman Mudgett was considered a lad with a future, a boy who professed filial devotion while secretly fantasizing his parents' deaths. By age eleven he was conducting secret experiments on small animals and strays, becoming skilled at disabling his subjects without killing them."

Edward Gein
"Ed Gein's gruesome and horrifying murders, the basis of the motion picture "Psycho," caused bad publicity for a small Wisconsin town and outrage over the treatment of his female victims."

Herman Webster Mudgett
"A compelling account of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 brings together the divergent stories of two very different men who played a key role in shaping the history of the event--visionary architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and Dr. Henry H. Holmes, an insatiable and charming serial killer who lured women to their deaths."

Audio Book Version: https://maine.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01MAINE_INST/9ennr6/alma991001277789708681

"The Vampire of Sacramento" (Richard Chase)
"It began with a random, drive-by killing. Then came the murder on Tioga Way, where Sacramento detectives saw the profile of a madman--where a dark trail of blood led from the front door to the victim's bedroom. For this killer, death was only the first step. Here was someone who had to desecrate the bodies of his victims, someone who would surely keep slaughtering until he was stopped. California's most monstrous case of serial killing had begun. Soon two men, two women, and a five-year-old child were dead. A two-year-old boy was missing. Calls from panic-stricken residents were rolling into police headquarters. And somewhere a maniac was hiding, his blood thirst mounting...As told by Lt. Ray Biondi, the homicide detective who spearheaded the investigation, here is the true story of murderer Richard Chase and the all-out effort to stop him. From bullet casings to containers filled with blood, from eyewitness accounts to the one crucial piece of evidence that finally turned the case around, here is what it was like to match wits with a psychotic killer--a man so depraved he drank his victims' blood."--Back cover.

Fred and Rose West
"An apparently ordinary and pleasant married couple, Fred and Rose West, molest, torture and murder a series of young women and girls -- including their own daughter -- bury the dismembered remains under their house, in the middle of the city of Gloucester, and continue living happily in said house for many years."

Larry Eyler
"An account of the murdering spree of Larry Eyler, who kidnapped, tortured, and killed at least twenty-three young men, describes how Eyler managed to evade capture for three years, his apprehension, and his release on a technicality."

After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history.

This study describes how Chief Inspector Issa Kostoev, an expert in the psychology of serial killers, hunted down and convicted the cunning psychopath Andrei Chikatilo. Responsible for the murders of 53 women and children, Chikatilo has become Russia's most notorious mass murderer.

Randall Brent Woodfield
"Provides a chilling study of serial sex killer Randall Woodfield, who cruised the I-5 highway from California to Washington, leaving a trail of a least forty-four victims behind him."

Cleveland's torso murders (unsolved)
From 1934 to 1938 an unknown serial killer in Cleveland, Ohio dismembered victims leaving torsos in various places. In 1936 Chief Investigator, Peter Merylo, was assigned the case and attempted to solve it until he retired in 1943. The book discusses possible suspects but the case was never solved.

Jerome Brudos
"Police detective Lieutenant John Stovall embarks on a relentless search for the killer responsible for the mysterious disappearances and murders of a series of pretty young women in the Northwest."

Jeffrey Dahmer
"The hot sultry night of July 22, 1991 was one the tenants of the Oxford Apartments would never forget. A panic-stricken young man--a pair of handcuffs still dangling from his wrists--ran out of Apartment 213 and told police an incredible tale of terror. Shaking with fear, he led officers back to his captor's lair, where they made a gruesome discovery. Inside were the body parts of at least fifteen men--including torsos stuffed into a barrel, severed heads in a refrigerator, and skulls boiled clean and stashed in a filing cabinet. Tacked to the freezer were Polaroid photographs of mutilated corpses. When investigators arrested 31-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer, they realized they had stumbled onto a "real-life Hannibal Lector"--a sadistic murderer who told them he had saved a human heart "to eat later." What could turn a handsome, former tennis player, the son of middle-class parents, into a perverse serial killer whose unthinkable acts shocked the nation? The Milwaukee Murders takes you into Jeffrey Dahmer's twisted world of bizarre sexual encounters, mutilation and cannibalism--in one of history's most appalling true crime cases."--Back cover.

Jack the Ripper
"Examines the century-old series of murders that terrorized London in the 1880s, drawing on research, state-of-the-art forensic science, and insights into the criminal mind to reveal the true identity of the infamous Jack the Ripper."

Robert F. Garrow
Two lawyers, Frank Armani and Francis Beige, are assigned to represent serial killer/rapist Robert Garrow who was accused of killing one person but later admitted to two others. The book discusses more the lawyers' roles in defending Garrow and all the problems that surrounded their defense.

Green River Killer (Gary Ridgeway)
"After a search of over twenty years, one of America's most elusive serial killers was finally apprehended. Now, read the true story of one man's attempt to get inside the mind of the Green River Killer."

Green River Killer (Gary Ridgeway)
Providing a look at the Green River Killer, who has so far claimed the lives of forty-nine women in Washington State, this account of the frustrating investigation provides a glimpse into the mind of a mass murderer.

"The French Quarter, November 26, 1980. A butchered corpse is discovered in a modest, well-kept apartment. No sign of forced entry. No witnesses. No murder weapon...Two days later another man is horribly slain in New Orleans' most exclusive hotel. Again the killer has left no trace-just two half-finished drinks on the nightstand...So begins the shocking, blood-soaked trail of homicide detective John Dillman's incredible manhunt. This hard-hitting, firsthand account plunges the reader into the gritty reality and high-pressure suspense of police investigation. A story of murder far more gripping than the best crime novels...because it's all true."--Back cover.

"It has been called the most consequential auto accident in American history. When Senator Ted Kennedy's car plunged into the midnight waters of Chappaquiddick Island in 1969, it left 29-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne dead...and sank the Senator's presidential dreams...Armed with disturbing new evidence never before made available to the American people, Kenneth Kappel delivers a powerful, authoritative look at what could be a brazen cover-up of the truth--and with great courage, attempts to right the historical record once and for all."--Publisher description.

"Dorothy Sheridan wanted only the best care for her five-year-old daughter, Lisa. She did as her faith instructed her: she prayed, she consulted a Christian Science practitioner, she stayed home, watched, and lovingly tended her child. And Lisa Sheridan died of pneumonia, "an unncessary death," according to the medical examiner who signed her death certificate. Before the week was out, Dorothy Sheridan found herself accused of killing her own child...and one of the most heartrending cases in America was about to begin."--Back cover.

"On the surface they seemed like the perfect American family. Leonard Fagot was a prominent New Orleans attoney, a decorated war hero, a dedicated family man, and the loving father of four beautiful daughter. But beneath the carefully drawn all-American facade lurked a man obsessed with power and discipline who controlled his family with threats, money, and emotional blackmail."

Recounts the history of the Gangster Squad, the eight man unit created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1946, that launched a war against organized crime and planned to wipe out the notorious mob boss Mickey Cohen.

"Ken McElroy had robbed, raped, burned, shot..and maimed the citizens of Skidmore, Missouri, without conscience or remorse. Again and again, the law had failed to stop him. On July 10, 1981, Ken McElroy was shot to death on the main street of this small farming community. Forty-five people watched. No indictments were ever issued, no trial held--and the town of Skidmore has protected the killers with silence to this day. Now this powerful true-life account details what drove normal American citizens to murder."--Back cover.

Winner of the 1988 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.

"A special anniversary edition presents Capote's masterful account of the senseless 1959 murders of four members of a farm family in Holcomb, Kansas, and the search for the killers, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith."

"Pretty and popular, high school teacher Pamela Wojas Smart loved good times, rock-and-roll...and her husband Gregg. Then, on the evening of May 1, 1990--six days before their first wedding anniversary--she found him lying in the hallway of their Derry, New Hampshire home, shot dead by a .38 revolver fired at close range. The grieving widow wept for her slain husband. But the police investigation that followed would soon reveal the shocking truth about Pam Smart--exposing her as a promiscuous cold-blooded manipulator who lured three of her teenaged students into a sordid conspiracy of cheap thrills, lurid sex...and brutul, premeditated murder."--Back cover.

One night Jennifer Levin left a Manhattan bar with Robert Chambers--the next morning her battered body was found in Central Park. Chambers claimed he had accidentally strangled Jennifer during rough sex. The shockingly true story of a murder that made headlines nationwide.

"David Richard Davis had everything a woman could want: charm, all-American good looks, and an exciting career. His lovely wife of only ten months never got a chance to discover it was all a pack of lies. For on a warm, humid evening in July 1980, Davis killed Shannon Mohr Davis, claiming she died in a riding accident. The first shocker was how he really did it, and the second was why. For when Davis fled the country, the whole horrifying truth came out. This is the chilling true story of how one shattered family's search for justice became a nationwide manhunt-ending in capture in American Samoa. This terrifying tale of greed and betrayal offers stunning insight into the mind of a murderer."--Back cover

NON FICTION-CRIME/TRUE ADVENTURE